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You don't need to get an ‘at risk' letter to feel at risk. Some months ago, I commented on the impact that dire predictions of redundancy numbers was having on the morale of individuals and organisations. As we get closer to the Comprehensive Spending Review, and councils try to work out the implications for the next few years, that impact deepens. Martin Horton is a director at SOLACE Enterprises And, increasingly, those in leadership positions are balancing personal concerns and anxieties with the responsibility of doing the best they can for their communities, organisations and staff. I have enormous regard, for example, for those engaged in moving towards shared management arrangements, where the consequences for themselves and colleagues are uncertain, to say the least. Critical to leading through the challenge of the next few years will be organisational and individual resilience. ‘Resilience is the process of, capacity for, or outcome of successful adaptation, despite challenging or threatening circumstances' (Masten, Best and Gamerzy, 1990). Resilience here isn't an academic or intellectual exercise – a product of more planning and data gathering. It is much more a result of trust, emotional awareness, empathy and self-confidence. While uncertainty and anxiety might lead us to look inward, to defend ourselves – at the expense of our colleagues or partners – resilient organisations and people will reach out and seek to give and receive support from others. Where the future is anything but predictable, and all the choices seem difficult, it takes confident leadership to stay resilient and build resilience in others. In all the research on resilience, three words keep cropping up: commitment, control and challenge. Staying engaged through difficult times committed to the organisation and the place it serves; a sense of being able to influence change as it happens, of having some control; and looking to meet the challenge and not get paralysed by it are what make for resilience. Resilient leaders and leadership teams will evidence this. Moreover, they will work in a way and provide the model to foster these attributes in everyone.

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WHITEHALL

Soap Box

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